CHAPTER 178

Allison had just gotten off a call with Erica, telling her how hard Boyd had taken the abrupt separation. At the very least, it looks like it wasn't only Boyd that was seriously invested in their relationship.

She was just as crushed with moving away from Boyd but unlike Boyd, she wasn't sure her mental state could survive any more of what she's gone through in Beacon Hills if she stayed.

It was obvious that she never truly got over the trauma and torture she was put through on two different occasions.

"Seriously, what is up with this town?" She quickly realized after becoming a Hunter that Beacon Hills wasn't nice to anyone involved with the supernatural side of the county.

"Dad, is something the issue? You've been pacing up and about for the last ten minutes." She asked, curious about what had her father walking around the house aimlessly.

"I'm sorry sweetie, did I disturb your sleep?" His taut features softened into a wane apologetic smile when he thought he had disturbed her sleep but Allison waved it off, showing she wasn't bothered in the least.

"I was on the phone with Erica. They arrived without any issues."

At the mention of Derek's cub and their safe arrival, Chris' face couldn't help but twitch, something Allison caught notice of.

"You know I can tell when you're being stressed out, right?"

Chris groaned. One of the disadvantages of living in a family of professional Hunters was that you have to mask your emotions 24/7 or someone could just read you like a book if you slipped up.

"Nothing inherently important. Just something weird in the sewers and the Sheriff wanted a specially educated opinion."

"… Okay, if you say so. Try not to grow more grey hairs while you are at it." She bid him goodnight and retired to her room.

"Hahaha, goodnight sweetie."

As Allison laid on her bed, she thought about how painful ending romantic relationships must be if Boyd was so crushed.

Somewhere along that line of thought, her mind briefly wondered what would happen if it were someone else in Boyd's place, say Tristan and Malia for example.

Surprisingly, her mind was also uncomfortable with the thought of picturing a scenario where Tristan and Malia lost the other. Yeah, she wasn't comfortable with it.

However, one thing she was sure of was that it was easier to put down a wild Alpha werecoyote than it was to put down a vampire Primearch. A bit extreme, but that was the likely result of such a scenario.

As she drifted off the sleep, her mind flashed back to how comfortably warm and cold Tristan's embrace was. It was the ultimate snuggle location.

'Mmn, this feels nice.'

...

[POV: With Tristan]

For the third time this week, Tristan found himself inexplicably waking up to a faint sense of danger that was never there.

It wasn't a coincidence that it started happening just days after he killed Jennifer.

"And the vampire is supposed to be the one forsaken by nature."

At the moment, Tristan was deep in the forest and a good distance away from his house. For some reason, he felt like visiting the site of the Nemeton after suddenly waking up, and so he did.

"Jennifer sucked a lot of juice out of you, huh?" Back then, he was sure he could feel something flowing through the stump but now that feeling was almost nonexistent.

"For some reason, I really hope you're not as important to me as you are to everything else."

Walking over to the hatch, he opened it and entered the Nemeton's root cellar, directly standing in the opening of the tree's roots and surrounded by them.

He touched the roots, not knowing what to expect by doing that but he did it regardless. He waited for a few seconds but nothing happened so he removed his hand and left the Nemeton.

"Fireflies." He muttered.

Around the Nemeton were these very luminescent fireflies that cast a shimmering glow over the groove.

"This is downright the most supernatural thing I've ever seen." Tristan deadpanned as he watched the unnatural phenomenon happening before his eyes. "So what is it? This… whatever this is, is definitely trying to tell me something, so what is it?!"

He scoffed as he saw the phenomenon come to an end and turned around to leave, his feelings conflicted.

….

Malia was feeling conflicted about a lot of things recently and it was beginning to show on how she acted, more so than it usually did.

She could feel that she was an Alpha, she knew that instinctually, but she still found herself feeling hollow for some reason. Unlike what others thought, she had an inkling of what was happening.

The whimpering of a child in the middle of the night that woke her up was a dead giveaway.

Feelings of guilt resurfaced in her mind and she knew Tristan was aware even after she tried to hide it from him. Well she didn't exactly try to hide it, but instead was trying to solve it on her own before it became a big issue.

Then there was the thing with Allison. And wasn't that a twist.

Half the issue that came from that was her own influenced feelings from the changes in her status, the other came from her repressed guilt(which she was just finding out she still had) and then there was her personal relationship with Allison.

… It was not a surprise that Malia wasn't the most in-touch person with her feelings.

–Whimpering.

There it was again. The crying sound of a dying child.

–GRRRLLLL.

The sound of a wild animal stalking the helpless prey.

It was a memory she remembered all too clearly. One she had forgotten for years. One she wished she never remembered.

–!!

"–alia!"

She snapped out of her daze as she heard Lydia call her.

"I can hear you clearly, Lydia." She replied with a bite in her voice.

Lydia rolled her eyes and replied sarcastically. "I don't know what has your fur ruffled but try not to show your dumb face openly in public."

Malia scoffed but said nothing. "You're looking better than you did yesterday. You sure you're good?"

Boyd released a small groan and remained silent, making clear that he wasn't in the mood to talk. They were currently in the library because it is the most quiet place in school and they could all do with a little quiet.

"Great, now we have a brooding Boyd." She remarked exasperatedly.

"Shush girls. At least try to talk about something else that doesn't make me question my already failing sanity." Lydia cried. "Like the hot new History teacher for example."

Boyd groaned louder and hit the table with the book he was trying to get lost in.

"No talk about hot guys or girls, please."

Lydia raised her hands in defeat and settled for going through her textbook.

'Boyd is coping and Lydia seems to have come to terms with whatever happens to her from now.' Malia thought as she watched her friends who weren't as lost as she was in their problems.

"Oh, hey guys." She looked up and saw Stiles waving at them before sliding down next to Boyd. "What's up?"

"As you can see, everyone is in a type of brooding mood." Lydia said with an eye roll and made a show of looking for someone. "What's up with you? And I don't see your girlfriend anywhere."

"Girlfriend?" Stiles whipped his head around but caught himself after realizing what Lydia meant. "Haha. Not funny, Lydia."

She shrugged. "Pretty funny to me."

"Anyway, did you guys hear about anything happening in the sewers?" Stiles whispered conspiratorially, earning weird looks from the people on the table.

"Why should we care about what's happening in the sewers?" Malia asked.

"Because, get this;" He leaned in further and paused dramatically to raise suspense. "My dad kinda asked me and I told him about Allison's dad, because he's the experienced one–"

"Why not the vet?" She asked again.

Stiles recoiled back while staring blankly at her as if he didn't expect such a question to be asked which in turn triggered his automatic sarcastic retort. "Because, Malia, he's a vet. And last I checked, he doesn't go around carrying highly lethal weapons."

"Illegal ones too." Lydia supplemented.

"Exactly. And also when I went through his files - and yes I read his files too, at least the interesting ones - it said that the animals down there killed themselves. Sounds familiar?" And that got all their attention.

"Like the crows."

"Like the crows." Stiles nodded. "So I was thinking if it's something like Deucalion and his Alphas once again."

They all looked at each other and saw the same answer they had reflecting in the others' eyes.

"Yeah, no way. We good." Malia said and went back to her books, an action copied by Boyd and Lydia.

"Huh? Wait, you guys aren't interested?" Stiles was shocked by their actions.

"Until someone, that someone being supernatural, starts killing people indiscriminately, I don't care what they do with the rats in the sewers." Malia said without looking up. "And besides, Chris and Allison are Hunters for a reason. As long as it's not an Alpha Pack, you should leave it to them."

They all agreed but were surprised that it was Malia instead of Tristan saying something like this.

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